October 31st 1981
by Revti
Summary: That fateful night... Now one complete series including 'No' and 'ILTWYLM' and a linking chapter.
1. I love the way you love me

**I love the way you love me**  


Author's note: This is a songfic to 'I love the way you love me', by the most amazing band on earth, Boyzone. I thought it fitted so beautifully to James and Lily. This has, by the way, nothing to do with 'Together'. Some of the words of the song have been changed to make it fit.

* * *

James looked up from his work, frowning as he thought hard. His gaze softened as it fell on Lily, playing about on the carpet with Harry. She was lying flat on her back, holding him up and tickling him. Her red hair was fanned about her head on the carpet, and she was giggling with Harry. It was the perfect, normal domestic scene. Yet how very far from being normal it was. 

"Lily," said James softly.

_

I like the feel of your name on my lips

_

Lily came and sat by him, cradling Harry in her arms. She kissed him lightly on the cheek, saying, "Yes dear?"

_

I like the sound of your sweet gentle kiss

_

James looked into her green eyes, gently running the back of his hand down her cheek. Something inside him told him to hold on to that moment, life wouldn't be the same ever again.

James' attitude caught Lily's attention, and she slowly lifted her hand to push his hair away from his face, letting her fingers linger on his skin. This was James, her precious husband with whom she'd fought, laughed and cried. 

_

The way that your fingers run through my hair  
And how your feel lingers even when it's not there

_

He brought his face forward till his forehead was leaning against hers and their noses were touching. They clasped hands and sat for a long while in the silence with Harry between them. 

"It's not going to last forever, Lily. He'll get us someday or the other."

"Our secret's safe with Peter."

"Is it?" said James slowly. "Voldemort has ways of forcing people."

Lily winced. "No matter is this is the last day of our lives, James, let's live it like there's no Voldemort." 

She stood up and pulled him to the centre of the living room, sending the furniture to the corner with a quick word. With another well-aimed spell she turned the radio up and waltzed James all around the room.

"Lily, this is ridiculous!" he grinned.

"Certainly not! I think we need to send you back to Hogwarts to retrieve some of the ridiculousness that you left there," she laughed.

_

I like the way your eyes dance when you laugh

_

"Welcome to a thing called The Cares of The Real World," he said gaily, putting an arm around her and twirling all over the room. Harry gaped at them, his bright green eyes wide open.

_

And how you've convinced me to dance forgetting pain  
With everyone watching like we were insane

_

He whooped and lifted Lily up in the air, spinning round and round as the waves of music washed over them. So what if Voldemort was out to get them? They were still alive after all. Life was not yet over. He put her down and she impulsively flung her arms around him and kissed him. In a burst of sparks he transformed into a stag and then back again into a human.

"Whoa! Sorry, lost control there for a moment," he grinned. 

Lily giggled and kissed him again. This time he galloped around the room twice before retransforming.

They began dancing again, this time to a slower tune, locked in a tight embrace. James sang along to the music, rocking Lily gently in his arms.

_

I like the sound of old R' n' B  
You roll your eyes when I'm slightly off-key 

_

"I love you, and I'm sorry for bringing this on you," he whispered in a broken voice, trying to hold on to that moment. But it was like sand held tightly in a closed fist, seeping out even as you struggle to contain it.

Lily made a choked sound and buried her head in the nape of his neck.

_

I love the way you love me  
Oh baby, strong and wild, slow and easy,  
Heart and soul, so completely.  


_

"Promise me you'll be brave and take care of Harry, whatever happens," he said urgently. 

"Voldemort's not going to get you without taking me too," she whispered through her tears.

"Lily, _promise!_

"All right, I'll be brave."

_

And I could list a million things,   
I love to like about you  
But they all come down to one reason.... 

_

Suddenly Lily's body tensed in his arms, and he felt it too: a cold fear, an aura of evil like a cold fist about the heart...

"Lily! Take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!" he shouted, pushing her away. He grabbed his wand from the table. "Go!"

Dread and terrifying fear filling her, Lily picked Harry up from the sofa and stumbled from the room, casting a long, despairing look at James, standing with his legs planted firmly wide apart, holding his wand before him defensively.

"I love you James," she whispered, before sprinting into the back yard.

The front door was kicked open with frightening force. A tall, hooded figure stood in the doorway, laughing in a cruel, high-pitched tone.

"James Potter, we meet again, but in _so_ tragic a fashion. _AVADA KEDAVRA!_"

The whoosh of green light enveloped him, even as he tried to dodge.

_

... I could never live without you

_

James Potter lay dead on the floor.

* * *

DISCLAIMER: Everything is JKR's, the song belongs to Boyzone.

Please remember to click that blue button down there. It just takes a few seconds to make my day. Flames will be used to burn Voldemort effigies. 


	2. Avada Kedavra

**

_Avada Kedavra!_

**

Lily stared around at the walls of the backyard in crazed panic, tears blinding her eyes. 

_Avada Kedavra...._

He was dead. James was dead. Her will to live was gone. She looked down at Harry's frightened green eyes through a haze of tears. Not even for him. She couldn't. Her knees buckled under her as she sank to the ground, a teardrop rolling down her cheek. It was over. It was all over. James was gone. In a few moments, she would be too. The world would have ended.

Harry was just a baby. Voldemort would kill him with a flick of his wand. Her baby. James' legacy.

A blind, impotent rage filled her. Voldemort mustn't, MUST NOT get Harry.

She had made a promise to James. She would not... could not break it. 

Slowly she got to her feet. Setting Harry on a chair in the dim, starlit backyard, she stood at the door, almost willing Voldemort to come out. From far away, she heard the sound of Muggle children calling "Trick or Treat?!" She could not believe that they trod on the same ground. 

Voldemort confidently, almost lazily entered the kitchen. Lily again felt sick, and her resolve weakened. A shuddering sob escaped her, and she was painfully reminded of her first and last visit to Azkaban. 

"Not so brave now, are you?" Her warm woollen coat could not keep the coldness of the voice from chilling her. The red eyes bored into hers. She nearly turned and fled in fright. 

Then Voldemort turned around, and looked casually at the body lying spread-eagled on the hall floor. Lily's stomach twisted in anger. All fear left her. She was going to die. She'd known she was going to die at Voldemort's hands the moment she'd entered the Order of the Phoenix. But she would not die shivering in fright. James had taunted her for not being a true Gryffindor. She would prove him wrong, although he'd never know. 

"You murderer," she said evenly.

"_Crucio_." His voice was steady and disinterested. The world rolled familiarly off his tongue. 

Lily screamed. The hot waves of pain coursed through her body, and she fell on the ground, twitching and jerking convulsively. Even through the screams filling her mind, she could hear Harry's frightened gurgle.

Abruptly Voldemort stopped. "You still have a chance, you know. Your foolish husband held firm. You can join the Death Eaters. You'll have your own life, and more importantly, your son's."

Lily did not think it necessary to answer. Another Cruciatus cruse hit her, and she dissolved once more into the familiar realms of blinding pain.

"Give me the boy."

She wouldn't let him take her son. She understood vaguely that Harry was very important to him. "No," she gasped.

Again, again, and yet again, he threw the Cruciatus at her, till she was crying on the floor, her strength gone.

"I want Harry."

Maybe he'd listen, maybe he'd understand... Maybe a stone would bleed... "Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" she cried desperately. With the last of her remaining strength, she stood across the door, propping herself against the doorframe. 

"Stand aside, you silly girl," he said coldly. "Now!"

Her legs crumpling, she sank to the floor. "Not Harry, please no! Take me, kill me instead! Have mercy, please, have mercy!"

"Move aside!"

She was dying. Dying, cowering on the floor, unable to save her son. She must stop him somehow, but she didn't have the strength to hold her wand. A flash of memory... Dumbledore saying something... Old... Dying... And then she knew. 

"I'll die before I do." How easy it was to summon up the courage. How easy to decide if two lives should be lost or one.

"_Avada Kedavra!_"

The flash of green light sped towards her. Life ebbing out, her corpse fell to the floor. Finally she knew what it was like to die. 

Voldemort was now free to remove the last obstacle in his way to total power. How easy it had all been! He looked at the baby boy, pale, surprised, and curious.

"I can almost feel sorry for you, my body," said Voldemort softly.

"_Avada Kedavra_."


	3. No!

**No!**  


Sirius Black straddled his motorcycle and took off into the night. The sky was cloudy and the moon was obscured. Below him, Muggle children went trick-or-treating, dressed in costumes that were way off the mark. Sirius smiled to himself indulgently. Really, it was funny how they thought every witch was an ugly, evil old hag with green hair, a shrivelled figure, and a cackle for a voice. Now, it wasn't like that at all... Sirius stifled a laugh.

He landed at Peter's hideout. "Hey Wormtail!" he called, getting off the motorcycle in front of a small cottage set deep in the woods. 

"Wormtail! Peter!" he called again, pushing the door open and walking in, a slight seed of fear growing in his mind, preying on his already tense nerves. 

There was no answer.

Sirius's stomach slipped a notch. _The Potters... Voldemort... Secret Keeper... No..._

"Lumos!" he whispered, holding his wand out in front of him. A light breeze lifted his tousled hair, only emphasizing the stillness in the cottage. The light played on his face, all of a sudden grave and serious. 

He lit the fire in the fireplace with a flick of his wand and slowly looked around, dreading what he would see. 

There was nothing to see. The cottage was bare. After a moment the significance of that struck him. Peter's personal possessions weren't there.

Sirius cautiously backed out of the cottage, his heart hammering in his throat. The sound of his twigs crunching underfoot sounded uncomfortably loud in the dead silence of the night.

_"No..."_ he whispered, willing it not to have happened. "Please, let Peter just have had to flee, please, not what I think, oh god, no! Not Lily and James! Not my wee little godson! NO!" he screamed aloud, shattering the silence of the night like a crystal glass thrown against a wall.

He jumped onto his motorbike, shaking with fear and anger, and roared off into the air.

_"No... no..."_ he whispered repeatedly, trying to deny what he knew for a certainty. A tear glistened on his cheek. "Please... Not Lily and James.... Oh God! What have I done?" He thought about Wormtail and a red rage filled his head, making his vision swim. "Bloody traitor... That rat of a person! We trusted his with our lives! Why did I make them change Secret-Keepers? I would have died rather than betray them to Voldemort. Yes, I would have, no matter how much he tortured me. Lily and James meant too much to the Light Side... We haven't a hope without them. It will be my fault if Voldemort has to got to them. All my fault..." 

He flew over Godric's Hollow, and a great lump formed in his throat as he saw the house that had held so many dreams for the young couple, blissfully in love and uncaring of the shadow that drew over them. It was destroyed, gone totally. The confirmation of his worst fears was almost like a physical shock to him, despite having suspected it. 

"_Hope_, Sirius, _hope_," he told himself fiercely, fighting off the creeping feeling that he was being suffocated. "They could have survived, they could have got away..." Deep down inside, he knew they were just empty words. He couldn't believe them himself. 

He landed by a giant of a man, who was standing by the cottage, clutching something in his arms tightly. 

"Hagrid, where are they? What happened?" he asked shakily, dreading the answer that he already knew.

"Dead," mumbled Hagrid. He seemed to be trying his hardest to bottle up some great emotion inside him.

"Oh god! No! _No..._," whispered Sirius, looking at the ruins. It had happened, like he had feared it would. His stupidity and cowardice had cost a young, brilliantly talented couple their lives, and the Light side the only hope they'd ever had.

Visions of memorable days spent at Hogwarts crowded his head, and his vision blurred with tears. He'd been there when they'd picked out this house before their wedding. He, James, Lily, Remus (Forgive me, Moony, for not trusting you...), and Peter, yes, that two-timing double-crosser. They'd thought of nothing but happiness, Lily's emerald eyes shining as she said, "It's perfect!" James with his arms around his fiancee, face alight with joy and hopes for the future... He'd been there at the wedding, right by James' side, sharing in the happiest moment of his best friend's life... He'd been there when Harry had been born, James fussing around like it was the end of the world, Lily's eyes dancing with joy... Why had they ever trusted Peter? He'd always been so timid and afraid, hanging around them so he could share in their popularity... And now he was sticking to Voldemort, wanting to share his power. It had been so goddamned obvious who the spy was, and they'd ignored the truth. And because of that, his friends were dead now... In the deep, shadowed recesses of his mind, he could hear Lily's and James's laughter echoing, Lily's infectious giggle, and James's whooping guffaw. And it made him want to cry. "I'm sorry Lily, I'm sorry Prongs, it's my fault..." 

"Sirius, it's all righ'. He was goin' ter get ter 'em sooner or later. It's nobody's fault bu' You-Know-Who's," sniffed Hagrid, patting Sirius on the shoulder. "But Harry here's survived!" 

"He has?" Sirius was pulled out of his reverie. "How? Voldemort would never leave any of the Potters alive. He knows too much is at stake."

Hagrid flinched at the sound of Voldemort's name, but handed Harry to him. Sirius looked down into those bright, questioning green eyes. _We teased Lily because green was a Slytherin colour... How's she'd laughed..._ He snapped back into reality, and his body shook with suppressed emotion as he ran his finger lightly down the lightning-shaped scar on Harry's forehead. Harry wailed with pain, and Sirius jumped. "A scar of Voldemort's curse... I wonder how he survived it," he said softly. 

"I don't know, but I've got to take the baby to Dumbledore. He'd probably know."

"Give him to me, Hagrid. I'm his godfather, I'll take care of him," Sirius said quietly.

Hagrid shifted uncomfortably. "No, I've got my orders, I've ter take him ter Dumbledore..."

"I guess Harry's safer with him. All right, Hagrid. Take my motorbike. I won't need it anymore," said Sirius in a grim voice. There was just one though in his mind, crowding out grief and anger, one though that directed every action he performed. It was like a battlemarch playing in his head, directing his steps. 

He was going to get Wormtail for this if it was the last thing he did. 

* * *

DISCLAIMER: All the characters in this belong to JKR, so does Godric's Hollow, Sirius's flying motorbike, but everything else is mine (Doesn't leave much else, does it?)

Note how I hinted at why they actually switched Secret-Keepers. I don't think the only reason is what Sirius said in the 3rd book. There was probably a small element of cowardice and fear involved, and probably that's why Sirius convinced them to use Peter. He perhaps wasn't sure if he could face Voldemort's torturing... Apologies for Hagrid's accent. I can't do it very well.   
REVIEW!!!!!!!! You could really make my day by reviewing, you know... Just a few seconds is all it takes....   
Thank you everybody who's reviewed 'I love the way you love me' and 'No' separately. I'm sorry to those who reviewed 'No', because I had to delete that and put it up again as a chapter of this. 


End file.
